Image Map

Thursday, June 27, 2013

End of the Year Activity - Roller Coasters

'Roller coaster' photo (c) 2004, Andréia Bohner - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Desperado, Nitro & Goliath are just a few of the roller coasters students learned about on the last 2 1/2 days of school.   This thematic unit (designed by a teacher, Lovin' Lit,  from Louisiana) included activities that related to all areas of the curriculum from reading non-fiction articles, recording and analyzing statistics, using map skills, to comparing and contrasting kinetic & potential energy.

Videos and pictures of roller coasters were used to engage students.  Sharing their war stories about being on a roller coaster helped them make connections.  Then following directions students slowly created a lap book using the information about the roller coasters.   They made bar graphs, learned about energy through this song.  The final activity was to build their own roller coaster using simple materials.  The designs were unique and many worked.  I believe if we had more time - ALL of them would have completed the challenge.



 As the temperatures remained high during the day, so did the level of engagement.  Students are encouraged to visit the eBoard site to design their own roller coasters via an internet program.

It was a great way to end the school year.  Please feel free to leave a comment (and especially leave a comment if you visit a roller coaster this summer!).


 

3 comments:

  1. It was a great year one of my favorites i'm going to miss you as my teacher. Have a fun safe summer!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Trever,
    So happy to hear that Fourth Grade was one of your favorites! We really did do many things and learned so much! Looking forward to seeing you as a "5th Grader" in the fall - Have a great summer & thanks for the special bracelet!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mrs Carroll
    I had an amazing day and hope to have another one tomorrow. I love our blog it reminds me of...SCHOOL! I am really looking forward to the 179 days ahead!:):)

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to leave us a comment!